9.2 The Fastcase Interface

• Library: A Guide to Legal Research in Virginia (Virginia CLE) (2017 Ed.)

9.2 THE FASTCASE INTERFACE

9.201 In General. Fastcase is a web-based legal research platform to search primary legal authorities, including cases, statutes, and regulations. This content includes a nationwide collection of state and federal primary legal materials that can be searched from a single interface.

Fastcase is accessible through the Virginia State Bar's website, www.vsb.org, or at www.fastcase.com. The Fastcase interface offers a system to search multi-jurisdictional databases and provides instructional videos, live online chat, and scheduled webinars to help researchers learn how to use the system. In November 2016, the VSB introduced to all members an updated version of the system, Fastcase 7, which is a new interface to the site's content to be provided in parallel to the classic version of this platform. ² Because some content is not yet available on the new platform, VSB members can access these features by using the Fastcase 6 interface.

The underlying content in the earlier version is the same as found in Fastcase 7. At launch, some features of the earlier version had not yet been introduced in Fastcase 7, but Fastcase representatives said that all features would be reintroduced once fully tested. This chapter focuses on the Fastcase 7 platform, noting where there are differences still in development in early 2017.

The top of the Fastcase 7 home page contains a single search box. The rest of the page has an arrangement of graphic tiles with links to: help and support; accessing user-created search alerts; a clickable list of recent searches; the print queue; and a final tile showing recent system news, such as a post to the Fastcase blog.

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Any search run using the main search box returns results from all Fastcase sources matching the search query. This approach incorporates a search feature present in many broad legal research platforms, including the latest versions of Lexis and Westlaw. The approach is to search everything first, encouraging users to filter results as a second step.

On Fastcase, search results typically include results from many sources, including some content outside the scope of the VSB contract, such as law reviews, legal forms, and treatises. All primary legal sources are included and accessible. To narrow results, a researcher applies filters to restrict results by document type, jurisdiction, or court hierarchy. This is done by clicking a box next to the result type, which also lists the number of matched documents from that collection. It is also possible to limit the result set by running a second search, which is restricted to the initial result set.

The Fastcase interface provides a fixed set of links at the top of every screen, with a search box and links to commonly used features. A search run with this element returns results from the most recently used collection. For instance, searching the full text of the latest compiled collection of Virginia statutes will result in a later search in this box with returns matching documents exclusively from this collection.

The Fastcase system also has an advanced search interface, where a researcher can select specific types of content or date ranges before beginning a search. This is helpful for restricting results to materials from one state, content type, or a range of dates.

9.202 Fastcase Case Law Database Content. The extensive collection of...